By DERYK WEDDE

The Mirror reporter

The state academic rankings is a concept that is commonly overlooked. Yet, with its minor influence, it plays a huge role in future life and post secondary assistance.

The rankings are composed of multiple fields of interest. Some of these fields include teachers, academics and grades, diversity within the school, health and safety and a few others. In the state of Wisconsin, a major part of these rankings have to do with ACT and SAT scoring in each of the schools.

Stevens Point Area Senior High (SPASH) has a long history of producing great students over the years. According to the Niche Top Schools 2016, SPASH is ranked at the 65th spot in the state of Wisconsin for public schooling. It fares very well considering there are over 500 other high schools throughout the state.

SPASH seems to dominate the local academic playing field with Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High in a distant 206th, DC Everest in 78th and Merrill in a close 71st. Even with the outstanding remarks, SPASH fails to compete with Marshfield’s impressive eighth place state finish in the rankings.

As a school, SPASH has an overall graduation rate at 91 percent, which for the size of the school and total enrollment, is quite impressive. Niche also reports that SPASH has a B+ rating for top college picks, meaning that students have a very good chance at going to their primary college.

“I’m happy to see our school as a whole beating out the other schools in the area,” said Jon Vollendorf, SPASH principal.  “I’m really proud to be a part of this school.”

Vollendorf is in his second year as principal for the Panthers after a single year at PJ Jacobs Junior High. Vollendorf has high hopes for students for next year’s rankings. He believes that SPASH’s academic excellence is nearly unmatched throughout the state.  “In terms of next year’s rankings I think that we can improve even further,” Vollendorf said.

As far as the rankings go in terms of benefits, there really is nothing to help the schools. The rankings are just a way to show which schools excel in any of the given subjects. It can be very useful to determine which school newcomers might choose when moving into the area.